Impressions, Reflections and Experiences from my Year in Iraq

October 27, 2008

A Tale of Courage in Northern Iraq

(Names and places have been changed or redacted where deemed necessary)

I work with some interesting people who come from many different Middle Eastern backgrounds, some of them have been working out here since the invasion in 2003. One of my favorites, and a personal friend, is a Kurd named Niyaz who grew up in Sulimaniyah, Iraq and Emigrated to the states later in life. Niyaz used to go on patrols in the north with the Coalition Forces until he was caught in an ambush that left him with a life threatening injury. He recently sought my help in putting the incident down in writing. I think it is a pretty remarkable story and I asked for his permission to post it on the weblog. Enjoy:

"In 2005 I was with a team that was ambushed while conducting an area familiarization
mission. We were in a rural and mountainous region to the east of DDDDD in the DDDDDD sub-district. I
was sitting in the back seat of the lead vehicle behind the driver. We were conducting
reconnaissance for possible exit routes and our convoy decided to try a dirt
road down the mountain. The dirt road took us past 2 villages, after passing
the 2nd village we noticed several people approach us waving excitedly
for us to stop; we ignored this and continued down the dirt road until it
eventually reconnected with the main road. We circled back around the same
route to get a GPS reading. Prior to
reaching the 2nd village, the driver realized we were headed straight into an ambush;
he threw the vehicle into reverse and backed up into a ditch. The gunmen began
firing on us at that point.

In the confusion of bullets and yelling I managed to climb out of the vehicle with the rest of the team, it
was then that I noticed I had taken a bullet in the head, I
was bleeding profusely and my hearing was impaired. At one point I got up to
return fire with my mP5 and noticed one of the gunmen was wearing Kurdish
clothing. I stood up and shouted at the gunmen in Kurdish and in Arabic to stop
firing. My team was taking cover in the ditch at the time and they tried to restrain me, but I persisted and stood up amid the gunfire and again yelled at
the gunmen to stop firing while yelling back at my team in English to also stop. I believed my injury was mortal, the blood
loss was significant and I was going in and out of consciousness, I made it my mission at this point to try and save the lives of
my team members. There was nothing to lose, I was determined to take control of the
situation. Everyone thought I was crazy, but our location was too remote for Coalition Forces to come
to our aid and we were pinned down.

I continued
to shout at the gunmen to stop, trying to convince them we were not bad people,
but I refrained from identifying ourselves as Americans
because it was still unclear who we were dealing with. When this failed, I decided
to approach the gunmen while demanding that they stop, the gunfire decreased momentarily
and one gunman yelled back asking who we were. I tried to ease the tension
and convince him that we were a friendly group. The gunfire had died down, but a second group on a hill in the distance continued firing on us while I
was engaged in a 2 way conversation with the 1st group of
gunmen. One of the gunmen approached me while several other gunmen drew their
weapons on me. I was reaching my hands out to show I was not a
threat. I lost consciousness several times, I fell
down and then forced myself back up again. One gunman identified himself as part of
the Kurdish Iraqi army, these were the Peshmerga. I explained to him that we were on his side and
requested that his people cease firing so that when our helicopters came they would not mistake the Peshmerga as enemies; this ploy worked and the gunmen immediately sent
a messenger over to the 2nd group of gunmen to request that all
gunfire cease. When the situation calmed down, my team began administering 1st
aid and we waited for MEDVAC to come. They arrived 20-30 minutes later and I
was flown to Mosul to receive treatment. The Kurdish village took care of the team afterwards and fed them." -Niyaz

As it turns out, this was a case of mistaken identity, a day earlier Sunni Insurgents had attacked this Kurdish village. The Peshmerga were there to protect them against a second attack. Today Niyaz is doing fine, the bullet was left in his head and he still suffers from occasional headaches and mental lapses. When Niyaz was a young man in Iraq he used to be a member of the Peshmerga, it is a strange twist of fate that he was put in a situation where he was taking gunfire from his own people. The history of the Peshmerga goes way back (see wiki link below), during the time of Saddam, they were a battle hardened militia who sided with Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Some say that if we had given more support to the Kurds in the mid '90s when Saddam's forces were dispirited and on the decline, they could have finished the job back then and we would not be in the mess we are in now. Following desert storm the US created a no-fly zone in the north to protect the Kurds from Saddam's aggression which allowed the Kurds relative prosperity during the sanctions. Today Kurds are one of the most persecuted groups throughout the middle east. They stood to gain the most from the US invasion, and their stronghold in the north is one of the few places that has had a degree of normalcy the past several years. They are second class citizens in Turkey, Syria and Iran (Iran probably being the most tolerant).

A few links of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshmerga

(http://www.watchingamerica.com/azzaman000116.shtml)

The Kurdish forces have always been very inclusive of women, which puts them in the company of 2 other Middle Eastern countries that actively use women in their ranks (Israel and Iran being the other 2):

Wow, thanks for the cool history lesson. This is an area of the world that we learn so little about. You are in my thoughts whenever I hear about events in the middle east and it's nice to know that you're safe. Take care of yourself and keep the great stories coming!!